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Why Corbu Is The Most Interesting New Band Of 2016

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 02, 2016 |

Posted by: Mandi Dudek

Corbu is a Brooklyn-based band that's a little out-of-this-world, in the best way. When you listen to Corbu's music, it takes you wherever you want to go. The songs are hypnotizing and lull you into a dreamlike state - which was frontman, Jonathan Graves' main goal when he joined forces with Amanda Scott and Todd Hoellerman to create Corbu: the most interesting new band of 2016.

Everything from Corbu's music to their fashion sense taps into the late age of the late 1960s and 70s - taking listeners to a different place in time. But what makes them so interesting is more than just what they sound like or what they wear. It's their way of thinking and the places where they've drawn inspiration from. It's the way they want their fans to have a whole experience when they see Corbu live or listen to their debut album Crayon Soul.

Corbu describes their music as mid-70s Pink Floyd influenced with modern electronic sounds that are paired with hip-hop beats. Graves samples from movies and breaks the sounds into tiny pieces to use the fragments as notes. The noisy film grain from the sounds drawn out - such as an actors laugh or a rocket ship - are broken up to make something musical out of it. They also find influence from genres all across the board, pull from them and piece it all together. Because of this, their music is hard to label - bringing you spacey electronica sounds with guitars and atmospheric little crackles.

Dreaming is another area of inspiration and has been a huge part of Graves' life since he was a kid. In an interview, Graves said, "it's a sort of parallel reality to our normal, waking consciousness... one where time doesn't exist and dead relatives can hang out with you. Whenever I'm making art or music, I feel like I'm trying to reach over into that place and bring some of it back into this one."

Corbu also gets inspired to make music by taking a trip down memory lane and igniting the creativity of their younger selves. When you're a child, you're at the most creative stage of your life because you don't have to worry about "adulting" suppressing your creativity. How would one go about being kids again after growing into an adult? As Amanda said in an interview, you play games you used to play as a child or listen to certain songs you once liked. This can fuel the creativity that is stored deep inside your brain and create inspiration in your life. Crayon Soul is about going back to that place of creativity while still keeping it under control. When you purchase Crayon Soul, it comes with a coloring book so you can tap into that creativity while also doing something therapeutic and artistic as you listen to each song.

When Corbu was making Crayon Soul, a lot of the imagery they would look at was retro space photos. They sampled colors from Space Colony Art from the 1970s and created a color palette to use in their artwork and visuals. Which correlates with characters they've created for themselves on-stage. The white outfits they wear during performances were inspired by the 1976 film, Logan's Run. LED square pieces are displayed on their chest and they use metallic paint to draw galactic-looking symbols on their faces.

Corbu is a band that sparks curiosity and make it very hard to predict where they will go next. Will they stick with this intergalactic theme that they've played up so much with their debut album? Who knows. But they've done a phenomenal job creating another world for the listener to escape to. They guide you through a futuristic place of distorted electro-pop sounds and bring you a childlike fantasy in the chaos of adulthood. Wherever they go next, we're intrigued by you, Corbu.